Defence Forces Review 2008

The Process of Reform in United Nations Peace Operations
of enabling units. The establishment of the Department of Field Support at UN Headquarters
should enhance the procurement, support and accountability of logistics support services to
all field missions.
Ac h i e v i n g Mo r e Ra p i d De p l o y m e n t
The ability to deploy troops rapidly is a problem that has beset the United Nations for many
years and for which no satisfactory solution has been found. While much progress has been
made in incorporating the different recommendations of the Brahimi Report, an improvement
in rapid deployment has not been one of them. The report gave some attention to this issue and
the ensuing Secretary General’s Report referred to using “the timelines proposed by the Panel
as the basis for evaluating the capacity of our existing systems to provide field missions with
the human, material, financial and information assets that they require” . 16 However, while
attempts have been made to address this dilemma, the majority of initiatives have either been
focussed on specific functional areas such as Strategic Deployment Stocks, or they have been
so general as to be largely ineffective such as the Standby Arrangement System. The problem
has been exacerbated by the need for properly structured, fully equipped, self-sustained and
appropriately trained forces the like of which are found in relatively few countries. While
there have been no shortage of offers of Infantry units such as Companies and Battalions from
Member States, the provision of enabling assets have been very difficult to achieve and in
many cases many missions have deployed short of these critical enablers. 17
The United Nations Stand-by Arrangement System (UNSAS) has simply not worked. While
UNSAS might help identify potential Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) it is still subject to
the standard procedures of force generation. What is needed is a high readiness version on the
principle of matching potential TCCs against potential requirements that have been identified,
and their placing troops and assets at an agreed state of readiness for a specified period,
and receiving reimbursement for that capability. This might eventually lead to meeting the
aspirations of coherent brigade sized forces as proposed in the Brahimi Report. This issue is a
priority for DPKO both in terms of improved deployment timelines and strategic reserves.
Despite the many shortcomings of the United Nations it continues to act as the only truly
global organisation. It has been actively engaged in a vast array of work that touches every
aspect of people’s lives around the world, often in ways unknown to the average citizen.
Despite the many problems in finding the correct number and mix of troop contributors,
staffing, logistics and resources for its many and varied peacekeeping operations there have
been many successes. A recent Rand Institute Study found that UN peacekeeping efforts have
been largely successful. “UN missions are nearly always undermanned and under funded,
with uneven troop quality and late-arriving components. But despite these handicaps, the
UN success rate among missions studied- seven out of eight societies left peaceful, six out of
eight left democratic- substantiates the view that nation-building can be an effective means of
terminating conflicts, insuring against their reoccurrence, and promoting democracy.” 18
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